Every photographer who shoots live music fights with the stage lighting. I don’t care who they are, they do. Knowing and understanding light makes the difference in photos.
During my RCPM Mexico Trip with Chadwick Fowler we talked a lot about light. Good lighting, bad lighting, flash settings, ambient light – you name it. He is someone who gets it and can covey the importance of proper lighting.
Conversely, I am not that technical of a photographer, which admittedly is a shortcoming. With that being disclosed, here is what I can share with you about concert light and stage lighting.
When I photograph live music I look for patterns in the stage lighting. Many venues even use programmed lighting, which makes it much easier to predict lighting patterns.
I try to look for white spotlights with colorful backlighting. Many times this light combination will give you the dramatic photograph that puts your audience at the concert. The other combination I look for is blue and green spotlights with white back lighting. This also works really well. Look for patterns that work for you and your equipment. (Example of white spotlights with a colorful background – Kid Rock Country Thunder / Florence, AZ.)
Now the bad. Red stage lights are the most difficult to work with. The red lighting is so powerful to the camera’s sensor that it often overpowers everything else. This doesn’t mean that you can’t work with it, it just means that it may take some time, practice and patience. (Here’s my favorite concert photo taken with red lights – Roger Clyne New Year’s Eve / Phoenix, AZ.)
Like anything, photography takes a lot of work and practice – music photography especially. When I photograph music I may take as many as 600 photos, of which I really like 15 - of which 4 are great. Be patient, practice as often as possible, look for lighting patterns and strive to capture the emotion of the performance.
Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think. Thanks everyone for reading!
Article by Greg Taylor
Founder of WordPress Development Company, Marketing Press. Vegetarian. Hopelessly addicted to music. Blogger, Collaborator, Phoenix Suns fan. NJ Native living in AZ
Greg has contributed 160 articles to this site.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s a challenge, Greg, to be true. But I am spoiled by big concert, and mid-level venue lighting. I love it. It allows for simple camera changes to really come through. Spot-focus and centered- or spot-metering really shine in the dramatic contrasts of pro stage lighting.
It’s the basement clubs, where there are maybe 3 can-lights, sometimes only powered (underpowered) by oddly colored LEDs, that put the most strain on my problem-solving skills. There’s never a lighting program, and the sound guy only occasionally decides to change the lights manually. THAT’S when it gets tough. Little punk rock clubs like that call for a remote flash to get clamped into the rafters and a lot of bouncing the on-camera flash.
Luckily, my work as a wedding photographer here in Mesa AZ, with my equipment geared toward anticipating low-light churches and receptions, gives me a head-start in meeting those challenging conditions.
But no matter what the venue, concert photography is inspiring. Every demographic strata of concert hall offers different levels of access, restrictions, and liberties. The technical challenges or benefits always seem to balance out with the freedoms (or lack thereof) to get where and what you want.
Nice writeup. I’m a concert photographer who works primarily with lighting directors, and the marriage of the two has been key to my work. Modern lighting is getting more and more powerful with intense LED’s and high wattage lamps (3k moving lights), which has been both a blessing and curse as blowing out highlights is easier than ever, but the color representation is amazing. It also doesn’t hurt having some DSLR’s with great high ISO ranges now (although I still keep mine as low as possible, and switch it constantly with the type of lighting, ie, reds).
Thanks for the article! I like that you actually included numbers for how many shots you take.
I just got done photographing my first show with a photo pass. I, too, took ~600 photos, came out with about 10 that I like, and one or two which are great.
Funny how those numbers work! Except in my case, “like” is more like “acceptable” as I’m still struggling to make my D70 do what I want it to :)